In response to pleas of “just tell me what I have to do and how to do it”, inviting enquirers to “read the regulations” is falling well short of the industry educational expectations arising from WorkSafe NZ’s Statement of Intent 2016-2020.

While 130,000 businesses are reportedly captured by the Hazardous Substances and Major Hazard Facilities regulations, the official mantra of “600-900 persons seriously harmed each year by unwanted exposure to chemicals in their workplace” presumably applies to all 530,000 workplaces?

If so, how is this major danger to be comprehensively addressed?

Regrettably, some ‘improvements’ in the HSWA Hazardous Substances regulations intended to “simplify compliance” will have a detrimental effect on workplace chemical safety.

Instead, PCBUs and struggling SMEs must now devise their own solutions to ensure employees are competent to safely handle the chemicals they work with – a major problem for under-resourced SMEs.

Importantly, a workplace inspector and compliance certifier will find verifying an employee’s chemical handling expertise more difficult and time consuming than simply inspecting a current Certified Handler certificate.

The controversial Major Hazard Facilities regulations at last require chemical plants to determine if local Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) detachments have the required capability to deal effectively with a major site or transport chemical incident.

Internationally, chemical industry leaders are moving away from relying on lagging indicators of safety performance in favour of identifying safer work practices and workplaces, by responding to workers’ suggestions about improvements.

Responsible Care NZ extols less regulation in favour of enabling business operators to be increasingly self-sufficient, using cost-effective products and services such as site compliance assessments and specialist training.

Our focus is keeping people safe around the chemicals we encounter every day, by once again adding value to businesses.

A refreshed and energized government strategy for improving workplace chemical safety is both welcome and essential if we are to significantly improve sub-standard performance and learn from our successes and shortfalls.

Perhaps replacing the export of our plastic waste by revisiting a state of the art high temperature incinerator to also bolster our energy generation? Significant financial rewards for innovative reduction of waste?

The chemical industry continues to lead by example, helping to ensure essential chemicals encountered at work and at home are safely managed, thereby safeguarding employees, communities and our beleaguered environment.

Expanding mutually beneficial government- industry partnerships helping business operators ‘do the right thing’ with minimal fuss and expense should be ‘a no brainer’.

Conscientious business operators can add value by sourcing accurate, cost-effective chemical safety assistance and compliance tools from their suppliers and our industry partners.

Chemical suppliers are ‘Impatient optimists’. We know we can all collectively do better through continuous improvement and we are committed to helping you become an exemplar for workplace chemical safety, this year and every year.

How about it?

Responsible Care is a global, voluntary initiative developed autonomously by the chemical industry for the chemical industry. 04 499 4311 www.responsiblecare.com